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Does one object have more or less mass than another object? Test it on a balance to see.

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So we finally come to a subject none of us likes talking much about--weight! Because, you know at some point one of your little darlings is going to ask, "How much do you weigh?". Luckily, in kindergarten, we deal strictly in non-standard units of measurement. So I'm honest. I tell them.

Approximately 15,000 cubes.

If they can figure out how many pounds that is, then I really am a phenomenal problem-solving teacher!

Texas kindergartners are only required to 2 objects based on their weights. A truck weighs more than a book. An apple weighs less than the school. You get it. But, if they are ready, I usually expose my kids to using a balance and weighing with non-standard units.

K(10) Measurement.

The student directly compares the attributes of length, area, weight/mass, capacity, and/or relative temperature. The student uses comparative language to solve problems and answer questions. The student is expected to:

(D) compare two objects according to weight/mass (heavier than, lighter than or equal to).

K.MD.1. Describe measurable attributes of objects, such as length or weight. Describe several measurable attributes of a single object.

K.MD.2. Directly compare two objects with a measurable attribute in common, to see which object has "more of"/"less of" the attribute, and describe the difference. For example, directly compare the heights of two children and describe one child as taller/shorter.

To introduce this concept, we simply practice comparing weights by holding different objects in our hands. Of course, some objects are a little too heavy to actually pick up. Luckily, the kids already have a solid schema--most can easily tell you that a car weighs more than a soccer ball.

I have the kids use their water bottles and find objects that weigh less and weigh more. They record their answers in their math journals, and we make a class chart, as well.

The interesting part comes when they find an object that is fairly close in weight to the water bottle. Even I would have a hard time determining which one actually weighs more, so that presents an excellent opportunity to discuss--How can we know for sure which one weighs more? (We'll get to that in a few days when we start measuring with cubes.)

Another excellent discussion to have is:

How does an object's size affect its weight? Does bigger always mean heavier?

I pull out several objects specifically for this conversation--a feather, a marble, a beach ball and a baseball. First, I ask the kids Which ones are bigger? Both the feather and the beach ball are bigger. Then I ask Which ones are heavier? The marble is heavier than the feather, even though it is bigger. And the beach ball is much lighter than baseball, even though it is much bigger.

Why? Most kids will quickly realize that the beach ball is full of air, and air is very light. It's fun to hear what they think is inside of a baseball (rock). After some discussion, we decide that the more "stuff" (or matter) is inside of a given area, the more it will weigh.

Then we discuss the difference between weight and mass.

Just kidding!

I don't actually want to get too technical and risk the formation of misconceptions. I just want them to see that size and weight are not always related and that big objects can sometimes be light and that small objects can sometimes be heavy.

As a follow-up activity/warm-up, I have the kids complete a heavy/light sort in their math journals.

WHAT is a "shoebox" balance, you ask? Only one of my favorite activities ever! Full disclosure: My team makes fun of me for this activity. I don't know why--it's an excellent way for children to figure out how a balance works. I never introduce "real" balances until we have played with our shoebox balances for a while.

You will need: a cylindrical object of some sort (a can works); a long, flat object (like a shoebox lid); and some play-doh (obviously, dollar store stuff works just fine).

Place a blob of play-doh on the table and place the can into it. This is so the can will not roll away. The can needs to be as straight as possible, so be careful to push the can down into the play-doh evenly.

Now, balance the lid on top of the can. Do not use play-doh to stick the lid on the can. That's cheating. Just balance it. It takes practice. I let the kids practice balancing the lid with nothing in it until they get the hang of it. They are learning that the lid has to be centered on the can for it to work. Why? Because then, the same amount of lid is on each side--so each side "weighs" the same.

After a while, I let the kids start placing objects on each side of the "balance." I give them an assortment of my mixed math tools--cubes, counters, etc. I do not tell them how to do it--I let them figure it out on their own! If one side falls down, they figure out that they have to add something to the other side. If that side then falls down, they might take that object out and try something lighter. It's all about trial and error. They are problem-solving!

They are gaining a solid understanding of how a balance works. (You might notice that my kids are using domino box lids and plastic cylinders from a building set I have. Whatever works!)

By the way, if you see this (look below), you might want to discuss with the students why it's not quite right. Technically, it is balanced. But because it is not on the curved part of the cylinder, it's a whole lot easier!

So as my kids are exploring, I ask them---Does this remind you of anything? Usually, someone will say a teeter-totter, or see-saw. I ask them how a see-saw works--and how that is like our shoebox balances? The light side goes up...the heavy side goes down! And what has to happen to make it balance? Both sides have to be the same weight--or equal.

Would it be fun to play on a see-saw with an elephant? No--because the elephant is so much heavier, you would be stuck in the air all the time. This is something that most kids can relate to--connecting their new learning to what they already know.

Finally, I have my kids record their results in their math notebooks.

So after my kids have had lots of time to play with their shoebox balances, I bring out the "real" balances. I also collect a variety of objects for them to explore with.

The first activity is to compare objects to see which weighs more using the balance. Again--do not tell the kids how to do it. Guide them through questioning, but do not model it.

For a challenge, have the kids figure out which of the objects they compare weighs the most. That's true problem-solving! Watch to see what strategies the kids use to keep track of the objects they weigh. This is definitely a challenge. I always have them work together in a group for this problem.

Here's my old recording sheet, but I've updated it for this year and included it with the blackline masters. I chose objects that most people already have in their classrooms or that are easily accessible.

This is just more practice using a balance. I give each group and eraser and a variety of objects. They see how many different combinations of objects they can find to balance the eraser.

So here, instead of just comparing objects, we are actually weighing them using non-standard units. In the past, I have used bears, but this year, I'm using cubes. The kids will have to do some rounding, for sure. Sometimes 6 cubes isn't enough to make it balance perfectly, but 7 is too many. I tell them to get as close as possible.

While they're working, I ask them what the benefit of using the cubes (bears) to measure with would be. (It's a common unit that you can then compare weights with).

When they're done, I ask which object weighed the most? They can answer very easily...here it was the rock, because 13 cubes was the most. Was it harder or easier to tell which object was heaviest today, as compared to yesterday? They should (hopefully) say it was easier today--because they knew how many cubes each object weighed, they did not have to go back and compare each object. They had a common unit by which to compare.

Day 6

Here I have the kids explain, either verbally or in writing, how a balance works.

And we make an anchor chart.

Challenge Problem

Here is a chance for the students to apply what they've learned to a more abtract problem. I do not get out the balances for this problem, although they can use math manipulatives if they want.

This little girl used tiles. She put out 5 tiles to represent the 5 tiles on one side of the balance. And then she added tiles until she got to 12 (because she knew she would need 12 on both sides to make it balance). She then counted how many more she added to get the answer 7.

This little girl is a little more advanced in her mathematical thinking.

She has great computational fluency skills!

She wrote:

First, I draw balance and I count to make 5 cube for 12. Now 5 cube need another 5 to make a 10. And 10 cube need 2 more so that 5+2+7 and so 5+7=12 and that make 12 and 12 and it make both equal.

She is clearly ESL, but brilliant, right? She kept adding on until she got to 12. 5+5+2...

Challenge Problem

This is another challenging problem. I made this blackline master to help the kids visualize it.

They have to figure out that if the book weighs 5 cubes, there are 3 cubes left. So the pencil must weigh 3 cubes.

I put most of my blackline masters here in this packet. You can download them for free by clicking on the link below. You'll see I have updated most of the pages.

Download Measurement Unit_Weight

And now, I need to get off the computer and go get some exercise. Because to be honest, I could stand to lose about 2,000 cubes!

Happy measuring!

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balance lessons. using a balance in kindergarten

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So we finally come to a subject none of us likes talking much about--weight! Because, you know at some point one of your little darlings is going to ask, "How much do you weigh?". Luckily, in kindergarten, we deal strictly in non-standard units of measurement. So I'm honest. I tell them.

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Does this object have more heat than another?

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Opposite Adjectives With Cold And Hot Stock Vector - Illustration of educational, digital: 63733558

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Illustration about Opposite adjectives with cold and hot illustration. Illustration of educational, digital, paper - 63733558

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Can you bend the object easily?

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How does something feel?

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Some of This & Some of That: It Feels...

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Easy way to enjoy different textures. Kids can each repeatedly create their own sensory projects with materials.

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What color is the matter?  Does it even have a color?

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Keith Vetter 2003-03-21 :

Recently I needed to choose lots of different colors for a project. I'm not on Unix so I can't run xcolors. Also, I didn't find color values available for syntactic use in Tcl scripts with Jeff Hobb's utility until later.

Be that as it may, I went and wrote a little utility to display all of the colors that Tcl/Tk knows the name for. Moving your mouse over a color will display its name, RGB value and its numeric name. Double clicking will copy the color name to the clipboard.

It will also display the Windows-specific colors like SystemButtonFace and SystemHightlightText.

LV 2003-03-25: When I saw this page title, I thought the page was going to be about the idea of creating the equivalent of named fonts - in this case, the ability for a user to associate a symbolic name to a color setting, use the symbolic name through the application, then change the colors of all items using the symbolic name via one command.

KPV responds: See the original wiki page for this Named Colors.

LV continues: My second thought, having read the page, is how sad it is that Tk doesn't provide these names via some command.

It's also possible to go the other way programmatically. That's the job of closest color name.

KPV 2006-07-20: fixed a reformatting bug that allowed newlines into some color names. Also leveraged ::tk::Darken for prettier #xxyyzz display.

Zipguy 2013-02-09: I did copy, paste into a new file in Context (a nice editor for some purposes), commented out all these lines, added the two lines to the top, saved it as colornames.tcl (in the proper directory, re-opened it in ML - Heavily Modified & Improved, and it looked good. So I hit the gear in ML (to save and run it), and it did work. It looked like this:

which looked wonderful! You can see the rest of the screens at Color Names, running, all screens.

You did try real hard to hide that little, tiny button but I did find it:

So, what I plan on doing is to make a slightly modified version that will also display a second version of the colors, sorted by name, and add a button somewhere to toggle them back and forth (Sorted vs By Color). This is what the code looks like in ML (colorized for syntax):

You don't see the "Procedures" window, which is now separate, but joined with the main window a la How do you make two windows act as one?. There, you can see the "Procedure" window slightly obscured (but you can see the first eight characters of it). Anyway, what I'm doing is trying to understand all of the code, first.

Jeff Smith 2019-06-14 : Below is an online demo using CloudTk

Please Note : This demo has a run time of 2 minutes.

##+#################################################################
#
# Named Colors -- lists and displays all of tcl's named colors
# by Keith Vetter, March 19 2003

package require Tk

set COLORS { snow {ghost white} {white smoke} gainsboro {floral white}
    {old lace} linen {antique white} {papaya whip} {blanched almond}
    bisque {peach puff} {navajo white} moccasin cornsilk ivory
    {lemon chiffon} seashell honeydew {mint cream} azure {alice blue}
    lavender {lavender blush} {misty rose} white black {dark slate gray}
    {dim gray} {slate gray} {light slate gray} gray {light grey}
    {midnight blue} navy {cornflower blue} {dark slate blue} {slate blue}
    {medium slate blue} {light slate blue} {medium blue} {royal blue}
    blue {dodger blue} {deep sky blue} {sky blue} {light sky blue}
    {steel blue} {light steel blue} {light blue} {powder blue}
    {pale turquoise} {dark turquoise} {medium turquoise} turquoise
    cyan {light cyan} {cadet blue} {medium aquamarine} aquamarine
    {dark green} {dark olive green} {dark sea green} {sea green}
    {medium sea green} {light sea green} {pale green} {spring green}
    {lawn green} green chartreuse {medium spring green} {green yellow}
    {lime green} {yellow green} {forest green} {olive drab} {dark khaki}
    khaki {pale goldenrod} {light goldenrod yellow} {light yellow} yellow
    gold {light goldenrod} goldenrod {dark goldenrod} {rosy brown}
    {indian red} {saddle brown} sienna peru burlywood beige wheat
    {sandy brown} tan chocolate firebrick brown {dark salmon} salmon
    {light salmon} orange {dark orange} coral {light coral} tomato
    {orange red} red {hot pink} {deep pink} pink {light pink}
    {pale violet red} maroon {medium violet red} {violet red}
    magenta violet plum orchid {medium orchid} {dark orchid} {dark violet}
    {blue violet} purple {medium purple} thistle snow2 snow3
    snow4 seashell2 seashell3 seashell4 AntiqueWhite1 AntiqueWhite2
    AntiqueWhite3 AntiqueWhite4 bisque2 bisque3 bisque4 PeachPuff2
    PeachPuff3 PeachPuff4 NavajoWhite2 NavajoWhite3 NavajoWhite4
    LemonChiffon2 LemonChiffon3 LemonChiffon4 cornsilk2 cornsilk3
    cornsilk4 ivory2 ivory3 ivory4 honeydew2 honeydew3 honeydew4
    LavenderBlush2 LavenderBlush3 LavenderBlush4 MistyRose2 MistyRose3
    MistyRose4 azure2 azure3 azure4 SlateBlue1 SlateBlue2 SlateBlue3
    SlateBlue4 RoyalBlue1 RoyalBlue2 RoyalBlue3 RoyalBlue4 blue2 blue4
    DodgerBlue2 DodgerBlue3 DodgerBlue4 SteelBlue1 SteelBlue2
    SteelBlue3 SteelBlue4 DeepSkyBlue2 DeepSkyBlue3 DeepSkyBlue4
    SkyBlue1 SkyBlue2 SkyBlue3 SkyBlue4 LightSkyBlue1 LightSkyBlue2
    LightSkyBlue3 LightSkyBlue4 SlateGray1 SlateGray2 SlateGray3
    SlateGray4 LightSteelBlue1 LightSteelBlue2 LightSteelBlue3
    LightSteelBlue4 LightBlue1 LightBlue2 LightBlue3 LightBlue4
    LightCyan2 LightCyan3 LightCyan4 PaleTurquoise1 PaleTurquoise2
    PaleTurquoise3 PaleTurquoise4 CadetBlue1 CadetBlue2 CadetBlue3
    CadetBlue4 turquoise1 turquoise2 turquoise3 turquoise4 cyan2 cyan3
    cyan4 DarkSlateGray1 DarkSlateGray2 DarkSlateGray3 DarkSlateGray4
    aquamarine2 aquamarine4 DarkSeaGreen1 DarkSeaGreen2 DarkSeaGreen3
    DarkSeaGreen4 SeaGreen1 SeaGreen2 SeaGreen3 PaleGreen1 PaleGreen2
    PaleGreen3 PaleGreen4 SpringGreen2 SpringGreen3 SpringGreen4
    green2 green3 green4 chartreuse2 chartreuse3 chartreuse4
    OliveDrab1 OliveDrab2 OliveDrab4 DarkOliveGreen1 DarkOliveGreen2
    DarkOliveGreen3 DarkOliveGreen4 khaki1 khaki2 khaki3 khaki4
    LightGoldenrod1 LightGoldenrod2 LightGoldenrod3 LightGoldenrod4
    LightYellow2 LightYellow3 LightYellow4 yellow2 yellow3 yellow4
    gold2 gold3 gold4 goldenrod1 goldenrod2 goldenrod3 goldenrod4
    DarkGoldenrod1 DarkGoldenrod2 DarkGoldenrod3 DarkGoldenrod4
    RosyBrown1 RosyBrown2 RosyBrown3 RosyBrown4 IndianRed1 IndianRed2
    IndianRed3 IndianRed4 sienna1 sienna2 sienna3 sienna4 burlywood1
    burlywood2 burlywood3 burlywood4 wheat1 wheat2 wheat3 wheat4 tan1
    tan2 tan4 chocolate1 chocolate2 chocolate3 firebrick1 firebrick2
    firebrick3 firebrick4 brown1 brown2 brown3 brown4 salmon1 salmon2
    salmon3 salmon4 LightSalmon2 LightSalmon3 LightSalmon4 orange2
    orange3 orange4 DarkOrange1 DarkOrange2 DarkOrange3 DarkOrange4
    coral1 coral2 coral3 coral4 tomato2 tomato3 tomato4 OrangeRed2
    OrangeRed3 OrangeRed4 red2 red3 red4 DeepPink2 DeepPink3 DeepPink4
    HotPink1 HotPink2 HotPink3 HotPink4 pink1 pink2 pink3 pink4
    LightPink1 LightPink2 LightPink3 LightPink4 PaleVioletRed1
    PaleVioletRed2 PaleVioletRed3 PaleVioletRed4 maroon1 maroon2
    maroon3 maroon4 VioletRed1 VioletRed2 VioletRed3 VioletRed4
    magenta2 magenta3 magenta4 orchid1 orchid2 orchid3 orchid4 plum1
    plum2 plum3 plum4 MediumOrchid1 MediumOrchid2 MediumOrchid3
    MediumOrchid4 DarkOrchid1 DarkOrchid2 DarkOrchid3 DarkOrchid4
    purple1 purple2 purple3 purple4 MediumPurple1 MediumPurple2
    MediumPurple3 MediumPurple4 thistle1 thistle2 thistle3 thistle4
    gray1 gray2 gray3 gray4 gray5 gray6 gray7 gray8 gray9 gray10
    gray11 gray12 gray13 gray14 gray15 gray16 gray17 gray18 gray19
    gray20 gray21 gray22 gray23 gray24 gray25 gray26 gray27 gray28
    gray29 gray30 gray31 gray32 gray33 gray34 gray35 gray36 gray37
    gray38 gray39 gray40 gray42 gray43 gray44 gray45 gray46 gray47
    gray48 gray49 gray50 gray51 gray52 gray53 gray54 gray55 gray56
    gray57 gray58 gray59 gray60 gray61 gray62 gray63 gray64 gray65
    gray66 gray67 gray68 gray69 gray70 gray71 gray72 gray73 gray74
    gray75 gray76 gray77 gray78 gray79 gray80 gray81 gray82 gray83
    gray84 gray85 gray86 gray87 gray88 gray89 gray90 gray91 gray92
    gray93 gray94 gray95 gray97 gray98 gray99
}
set WINDOWSCOLORS {
    SystemButtonFace SystemButtonText SystemDisabledText SystemHighlight
    SystemHightlightText SystemMenu SystemMenuText SystemScrollbar
    SystemWindow SystemWindowFrame SystemWindowText
}

set S(w) 130
set S(h) 20
set S(wrap) -1

proc DrawColors {} {
    global S COLORS WINDOWSCOLORS
    array set fill {0 black 1 white}

    set cwidth [winfo width .c]
    set wrap [expr {($cwidth - 20) / $S(w)}]
    if {$wrap <= 0} {set wrap 1}
    if {$wrap == $S(wrap)} return               ;# No need to redraw
    set S(wrap) $wrap

    .c delete all
    set cnt 0
    foreach color [concat $COLORS $WINDOWSCOLORS] {
        regsub -all {\s+} $color " " color
        set n [catch {set rgb [winfo rgb . $color]}]
        if {$n} continue

        # Convert to HSV and get the V value to determine fill color
        # see [Selecting visually different RGB colors]
        set value [lindex [lsort -integer $rgb] end]
        set value [expr {$value / double(65535)}]

        set tag "i$cnt"
        set row [expr {$cnt / $wrap}]     ; set col [expr {$cnt % $wrap}]
        set x1 [expr {10 + $col * $S(w)}] ; set y1 [expr {10 + $row * $S(h)}]
        set x2 [expr {$x1 + $S(w)}]       ; set y2 [expr {$y1 + $S(h)}]
        set xc [expr {($x1 + $x2) / 2.0}] ; set yc [expr {($y1 + $y2) / 2.0}]
        .c create rect $x1 $y1 $x2 $y2 -fill $color -outline $color -tag $tag
        .c create text $xc $yc -text $color -tag [list txt $tag] \
            -fill $fill([expr {$value < .6}])

        set rgb2 [eval format "\#%04X%04X%04X" [winfo rgb . $color]]
        set rgb2 [::tk::Darken $color 100]
        regsub -all { } $rgb { / } rgb
        .c bind $tag <Enter> [list set S(msg) "$color => $rgb => $rgb2"]
        .c bind $tag <Double-Button-1> [list Clipit $color]

        incr cnt
    }
    .c config -scrollregion [concat 0 0 [lrange [.c bbox all] end-1 end]]
    .c raise txt
}
proc Clipit {txt} {
    clipboard clear
    clipboard append $txt
}
wm title . "Tk Named Colors"
canvas .c -width 670 -height 600 -yscrollcommand {.sby set} -highlightthick 0
scrollbar .sby -orient v -command {.c yview}
label .msg -textvariable S(msg) -relief sunken -bg white
image create photo ::img::blank -width 1 -height 1
button .about -image ::img::blank -highlightthickness 0 -command \
    {tk_messageBox -message "Tk Named Colors\nby Keith Vetter, March 2003"}
place .about -in .msg -relx 1 -rely 1 -anchor se

bind Canvas <Button-2>   [bind Text <Button-2>]
bind Canvas <B2-Motion>  [bind Text <B2-Motion>]
#bind Canvas <MouseWheel> [bind Text <MouseWheel>]
bind Canvas <MouseWheel> {%W yview scroll [expr {%D > 0 ? -2 : 2}] units}
bind .c <Alt-c>          [list console show]
focus .c

grid .c .sby -row 0 -sticky news
grid .msg -   -sticky ew
grid rowconfigure . 0 -weight 1
grid columnconfigure . 0 -weight 1
bind .c <Configure> DrawColors

return

Grandclosing - 2014-07-16 04:20:37:

This is a really great program and very useful - I use it as a reference when creating my own scripts! However there is an issue with the scrollbar keybinding. Whenever I use the mousewheel to scroll, I get the following error message:

bad argument "pixels": must be units or pages
bad argument "pixels": must be units or pages
    while executing
".c yview scroll [expr {(2--120)/3}] pixels"
    invoked from within
"if {-120 >= 0} {
            .c yview scroll [expr {--120/3}] pixels
        } else {
            .c yview scroll [expr {(2--120)/3}] pixels
        }"
    (command bound to event)

A fix for this would be really great.

MG: has put a different mousewheel binding in, which works for him on Win7.

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Keith Vetter 2003-03-21 : Recently I needed to choose lots of different colors for a project. I'm not on Unix so I can't run xcolors. Also, I didn't find color values available for syntactic use in Tcl scripts with Jeff Hobb's utility until later.

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round, curved, straight, box shaped, oval, triangle, hexagon

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Baby Nursery Rhymes & Cars Trucks Videos

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Shapes for children - Circle, Triangle, Square, Rectangle, Semi circle, Oval, Parallelogram, Pentagon, Hexagon, Cross, Star, Crescent, Heart, Arrow.